From left to right, in the alternating back row: Johnson & Wales Executive Director of Alumni Relations Steven Shipley, Edward Bolus of Mill’s Tavern, Rizwan Ahmed of Hourglass Brasserie, Raymond Montaquilla of the Coast Guard House, Ryan Escudé of Centro, Jules Ramos of 1149, Tim Shook of Gracie’s, Ben Lacy of Tastings Wine Bar & Bistro, Champe Speidel of Persimmon, Benjamin Sukle of The Dorrance, Mike McHugh of Julian’s, Reddick Vaughan of Julian’s, David Cardell of Temple, Joe Simone of The Sunnyside and David Lieberman of Tastings Wine Bar & Bistro. In front from left to right: Danielle Lowe of Gracie’s, Matthew Varga of Gracie’s, Melissa Denmark of Gracie’s, Michael Hervieux of Belle Mer, Jennifer Luxmoore of Sin, unnamed from Temple, Kevin Gaudreau from Trio and Jonathan Cambra from the Boat House. Not pictured: Matt Gennuso of Chez Pascal, Karsten Hart of Castle Hill Inn and Kevin Thiele of One Bellevue.

In what has become the best annual culinary event in Rhode Island, on Thursday, September 20th, twenty-two of Rhode Island’s best chefs assembled at Belle Mer in Newport for the 11th Annual March of Dimes Rhode Island Signature Chefs Auction. This year’s honoree was Jonathan Cambra of the Boat House in Tiverton. A proud husband and father of two, Cambra has been involved with the March of Dimes event since it’s inception, has have many of the chefs pictured above and in the below photo selections. For the full set of 95 photos from this year’s event, please see this Eat Drink RI Facebook album.

Every year in the United States, more than half a million babies are born too soon, over 1,300 of them right here in Rhode Island. With your help, we work to improve the health of babies and support families if something does go wrong. – March of Dimes Rhode Island site.